THE boss of Australian swimming has finally broken his silence on our London Olympics debacle, accepting full responsibility. In this exclusive interview, under siege chief executive Kevin Neil speaks openly about our worst pool performance in 36 years plus the allegations of partying, using Stilnox and bullying.

Who should be held accountable for the disastrous swimming performance in London?

At the end of the day, I'm the CEO of the organisation and that's where the buck stops.

So is your job under threat?

It may well be. There's never a lot of security in jobs like this, but I have a very supportive board and a supportive staff. Still, I don't shy way from what's happened.

So you accept all responsibility. It's not the coaches, the high-performance unit or the swimmers?

You could share blame in all those areas, but I'm the one with the overall responsibility for all areas of the sport.

You've questioned before why the spotlight is only on swimming.

Absolutely. We were disappointed in the London performance and immediately announced a review of the high-performance area of the sport. I think the board has been pro-active to find out why our expectations weren't met. A few races were lost by 100th of a second, or millimetres. It could have been different but it wasn't and we're now undergoing a review. That's the right thing to do. I support it fully. A lot of other sports didn't meet expectations either. None of those sports have put their hand up like we did.

I think the fact your sport gets so much taxpayers' money is why there is so much interest in swimming.

We got about $9 million last year which is not too dissimilar to the other big sports.

Will you stand down if the inquiry levels blame at you?

I'll see what the findings are before I comment on that.

Was discipline a problem? We've heard these stories of wild parties in Manchester, pranks, Stilnox. I understand you were questioned about this in London by News Limited newspapers.

Yes, I was. Towards the end of the Olympics I was made aware of behaviour issues that may have happened two weeks before. I spoke to people who informed me it was more skylarking and pranks. That's what I told the News Limited journalists. It has since been further highlighted and discussed at board level. It will be fully investigated as part of the review.

It's obviously very serious when they are alleging young swimmers were bullied.

If that is found to be correct, I can guarantee that will be fixed.

What about the suggestions of Stilnox use in Manchester.

I guarantee we'll get to the bottom of it.

What will happen if it's found swimmers were on Stilnox?

If proven, a judiciary process needs to be adhered to.

What powers does the judiciary have?

They have the power to do all sorts of things. Cease membership, disqualify. This process in 2009 stopped Nick D'Arcy going to the world championships.

Why was there a lack of support among the swimmers in London. I'm told our team wasn't there in the stands like other countries.

I can't answer that for them. Each athlete was allowed to prepare for events in surroundings that best suited them.

Was there a split over Nick D'Arcy's inclusion?

I'm not close enough to the athletes to have any knowledge of that.

Should Leigh Nugent continue in his role.

Were they that poor?

Yes they were.

To expectations. I think Leigh is an outstanding man and he's probably the most respected and knowledgeable person in our sport.

Well, what's he saying? We've just had our worst Olympics since 1976.

He presented some statistic the other day that showed a real downturn over some time. In 2006, no individual male won a medal at the Commonwealth Games. No individual male won gold at the Beijing Olympics. In 2010 at the world championships, not one of our swimmers was ranked No. 1 in the world.

But that's his problem. He's got to fix that.

Yes, that's true. In 2008, before I started, all the money that goes into youth development, the pipeline program, had been taken out. It was all put into high-performance areas. There's obviously been a lag from that. We've rectified that situation with more funding now going to junior development ... we've now got a very good talent identification program.

You're an old rugby league administrator. Some believe your lack of knowledge of the sport is why it's now under so much scrutiny.

I'm there to run a business and I delegate to experts in different fields. Our job is to do whatever we can to allow the athletes to perform at their optimum at the key events each year. We run world-class events and we generate a lot of revenue. The majority of that is spent on the swimmers to get them wherever they want to go. Every coach - and there are 10 of them - got whatever they wanted to allow their swimmers to be at their peak. Some chose to go to America, some to Europe, some stayed in Australia.

Ian Thorpe did not receive one cent from Swimming Australia. He was provided some support in coaching and sports science like other swimmers were. It was deemed he was our greatest-ever swimmer and we offered some support, like a few others who were coming out of retirement. They'd all held world records and won gold medals for Australia. Ian Thorpe got no money.

All the other swimmers are funded from three or four different sources. Swimming Australia spends $1.5 million of its commercial revenue on the athletes. Last year, the range went from $31,000 to $8000, depending what tier they were in. Depending where they are ranked in the world, some get up to $20,000 from direct athletes support from the Federal Government. They receive money from the AOC as part of the medal incentives. They also receive funding from the state institutes.

Finally, are you convinced you are the right man for the job?

I work incredibly hard and so do my staff. We have fantastic corporate support. We've developed a new event for our swimmers in Perth in January where Australia will swim against China and South Africa for $500,000 prize money. International competition is incredibly important for our swimmers. We have to travel to America or Europe for competition. From next year, we'll have it here which can only help.

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